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Old One
Excerpted from scattered articles in the January 2008 electronic edition of Demon Hunters Today: Species, Cultures And What It All Means For Humanity, including Thaddeus Rackwall's grant proposal thesis. Background The Old Ones are an ancient race of demons, and, in fact, are the oldest known race on the planet Earth. Their existence began shortly after the creation of the world with the forging of twelve separate individuals. These would later be known as The Constortium of Twelve, and revered, deity-like, by the rest of the race. The Twelve were: *Brauron *Cannabiaca *Danaster *Illium *Katapola *Messana *Raetinium *Theolodian *Tyrus *Vindobona *Vizeliacum *Zeugeuma Much of the later culture of the Old Ones, such as it was, was established based on these twelve and their interactions. For example, the Twelve--for reasons unknown--automatically identified one another as siblings upon their creation. As they lacked none of the instincts for sexual proclivity and reproduction, this led the race to have no taboos against incest or inbreeding. Similarly, this also popularized the tradition still prevalent amongst their resurrected descendants: nearly all Old Ones address one another as siblings, even in the cases where the genetic relationship between them is far more complex (as it often is). The Twelve died off or were killed (see the bibliography for the heated dispute against both cases) well before recorded history. Some deaths of the Twelve have been noted in detail by their descendants (see Illyria for information on the assassination of the founder and former monarch, Illium) but for many, it's lost to history. This section will be updated as more information is recorded in iterviews by our field researchers. Knowledge of the Twelve provides a lot of useful background on understanding and interacting with Old Ones. However, the main focus should be on the presence of those ones that are no longer extinct--walking the Earth and living among us. Old Ones in Modern Society In December of 2005, several cults that had been interacting for a number of years finally realized their goal of resurrection. Dozens of Old Ones were risen into new host bodies in the modern world (the last census report reckons the number to be no less than forty and no more than one hundred--more specific numbers will hopefully be obtained for the next edition update in June 2008). So far, this has resulted in a great deal of chaos, initially centered in North America, where the bulk of the resurrections occurred. Many of the confused resurrectees reacted unexpectedly, even violently, to their new state of being, and a subtle war between the entire reforged race has been growing in the years since their appearance. There have been recorded human, demon and, yes, Old One casualties in this time, and those numbers continue to grow. Fortunately, however, many of the factors that contribute to Old One violence have decreased as they've spread out and begun recognizing established territorial boundaries for one another. Unfortunately, this has also had a collateral effect that makes researching them difficult--as they've spread out and become more adept at hiding, the ability to gather information on them has become significantly impaired. What is known is that many Old Ones have set their territories up as "kingdoms"--emulating their former political configurations, while at the same time absorbing whatever factors of our own they consider useful to establishing and maintaining a power base. Some such territories are quite large--taking countries in whole or in part, or even containing multiple countries--while others are non-threateningly small, such as cities within another Old One's territory. Paradoxically, the larger a territory is, the harder it becomes to retrieve information on the Old One the territory belongs to. It is theorized that this is because, as the power base spreads and strengthens, so, too, does its security, making it monstrously difficult to get anything in or out. Known Old One Traits An Old One can make for the biggest fight of your life, aspiring hunters! Here are some tips on their common physiological/psychological aspects, which will hopefully give you an edge in combat. Old One Senses The standard Old One has twenty-two senses. It is not yet known what all of these are, besides the standard package of five found in humans, but the confirmed ones include: *Detecting magnetism *Paradiagnostic sensory perception (e.g, sensing body temperature, inherently perceiving the inner workings of other species' anatomy) *Detecting energy *Layered vision (e.g, Old Ones can see not only those things detectable on the wavelength of visible light, but the entire electromagnetic spectrum: gamma rays, hard and soft x-rays, ultraviolet and infrared) *Clairsentience (A warning: this not only allows them to more quickly get a complete diagnostic scan of your body, but a glimpse into your emotions and your very soul. It also grants you a useful edge, however: most Old Ones cannot abide being touched for any considerable length of time.) *Extradimensional perception (Old Ones have a larger sense of space and time--they can detect the presence of dimensions, which constantly move around, and the weak points in the fabric of time. This feeds into some of the abilities some have been found to have, which will be discussed later.) *Supernatural perception (Old Ones can "taste" magic.) Old One abilities These are even harder to pin down than the extra senses the species possesses, as their abilities are many and vary from individual to individual. Some left a few behind in their original bodies, so to speak, and others have also gained some new ones from their host bodies. However, a few commonalities have been noticed, and these are some that many, if not most, appear to have: *Elevated strength *Preternatural speed *Vegetation communication *Selectively alter the flow of time (this goes hand-in-hand with the aforementioned extradimensional perception--that sense allows them to detect the weak points in the fabric of time to alter it.) *Spontaneous interdimensional transportation (extradimensional perception allows them to do this as well.) *Nigh-invulnerability. *Varying degrees of shapeshifting *Energy transference (only within their own species--do not attempt to drain them using your own energy transferring abilities if you have them.) Identifying an Old One "How do you know what you're facing is an Old One?" This is the most frequently-asked question we've gotten since running the announcement that these demons were among us again in the Jan. 2006 issue. The unfortunate answer to this question is, you don't. There's no real way to tell without being told. The Old Ones were risen into many different species of host body, so that they can't be easily identified by any of the traditional means. One feature that can be looked for, though that should not be counted upon, is that many have marked visible differences from the species that they are using as hosts. If you come across a member of a species you have prior experience in identifying, and it happens to look inexplicably "different"--e.g, bizarre changes in coloring, reduced body moisture index, decreased temperature (most visibly noticeable in hypercoloric exotherms), or exterior texture malformation--what you might be looking at is an Old One. For your convenience, we have compiled a list of currently known species being used as Old One hosts (check back for updates in the next issue): *Aphenite *Blatella *Chamol *Chavrak *Echryn *Fyarl *Gelth *Grox'lar *Hiveling *Human *M'Fashnik *Marilith *Mosusc *Raknos *Rakshasa *Skillosh *Thesulac Old One Culture And Psychology This section will hopefully continue to grow, as right now, this information is exceedingly difficult to come by. What we do know barely scratches the surface of an ancient and complicated race. The culture is a deeply complex one, with many rules and restrictions based on (in many cases) outdated precepts that no longer apply to the race as a whole. The society seems to have very few identifiable taboos, and most that exist seem to be rooted in accomodating common tendencies towards egocentricity, narcissism and acute paranoia. Old Ones are not without their humanizing characteristics, however, and it is worth noting that the formation of family groups is extremely important to them. In their time, Old Ones typically lived in large clusters of close relatives--often siblings or cousins--and in ours, this tendency has not completely vanished. Many Old Ones have been noted as attempting to rebuild former relationships--primarily of kinship, most often between parents and their children, and between siblings. Paradoxically, most Old Ones profess an aversion (if not an inability) to both familial and romantic love. One tendency that may be perceived as alarming is the natural inclination among the species to reproduce. Many have begun to mate/marry and bear children--ostensibly to replenish their numbers and stabilize their holdings. It is not known at this time how quickly their population is growing, or what kind of a threat this may be to the human populace. Category:Species Category:Old Ones